A few years ago I began a new tradition - the caricature illustration for the Bee Sports section on opening day or near opening day. Besides being fun for me to do I have noticed something kind of spooky regarding the turn of events surrounding the subjects I have chosen to illustrate.

This season I illustrated the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in an Atlas pose holding an enormously large baseball. Shortly after the opener in Australia and on the flight home Kershaw began to experience pain in a large muscle of his upper back. He is on the DL (disabled list) for the first time in his storied career and will likely be out for at least a month.

One of the first illustrations was of Barry Zito of the San Francisco Giants. Zito had signed one of the richest contracts for a major league pitcher that season. He was a bust, turning in some of the worst performances of his career year after year* – even left off the 2010 World Series roster.

Buster Posey. You know him. Giants. Catcher. Suffered a broken leg in a freak collision protecting home plate. He was out the remainder of the season. Yes. I illustrated him for the cover of Sports that year.

Hey, did you hear that the San Francisco Giants won the World Series? Oh yeah, totally happened. I’m sure you didn’t hear ANYTHING about it on Facebook or Twitter. Here’s one fun Fresno fact that you and your sarcasm detector might not know, though: 17 of the 25 players on the Giants’ World Series roster played for the AAA affiliate Fresno Grizzlies at some point.

Some players we saw a lot of — catcher and clutch home-run-hitter Buster Posey, Game 2 winning pitcher Madison Bumgarner and Game 4 tripler Brandon Belt, for instance. Others, like MVP Pablo Sandoval and unlikely Game 1 winner Barry Zito, we only saw briefly.

It’s hard to argue with the Grizzlies current “Farmgrown” marketing campaign. Just look at the pics below. In some cases these Grizzlies look quite different than the guys you saw soaked in champagne last night.

1. GO SEE THE CIRCUSRingling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey makes its annual stop at Selland Arena. You have seven chances to see The Greatest Show on Earth — one tonight, and three shows on both Saturday and Sunday. [Tickets]

Here in Fresno, there’s a lot of pride for the Giants win — even from an A’s fan such as myself, who couldn’t help but get lured into the Giants improbable run. I owe much of that to the Fresno Grizzlies, who gave me and thousands of others the chance to see this year’s World Series heroes before they captured the hearts of baseball fans nationwide.

The ladies of NoTown Roller Derby are having a battle for ultimate Fresno derby supremacy this weekend. Instead of playing a team from a different city, they’re splitting up all their skaters into three different squad and playing each other, tournament style, and calling it the FresYES Fest.

They’ve each adopted a temporary, Fresno-inspired moniker, making Saturday night’s bout — The Shaw Shankers, The Fulton Maulers and The Huntington Blvd. Harlots — a new kind of Fresno celebration.

We’re introducing you to one member of each team this week and getting the scoop on their squad and their favorite things about Fresno. We start with Kim Burly (#1337) — a well-known Fresno cheerleader from her 31 Days of Fresno blog — and a member of the Shaw Shankers.

How did your team come up with its name? It was down to a few options, but ultimately we all most strongly identified with making sharp weapons out of tooth brushes and other household items, so Shaw Shankers was chosen from the list of names submitted by our fans.